Dan Flores | Visions of the Big Sky

Published: October 6, 2010

In Volume Five in the Charles Russell Center’s series on Art and Photography of the American West, author Dan Flores has assembled some of the most important and evocative artwork created in the region, depicting scenes from the Wind River Range of Wyoming to the Canadian border country.

When one thinks of western art, names like Charles Russell and Frederic Remington easily come to mind. Flores shows us in eloquent fashion that there are many more personalities and talents to look at when considering the documentation of the Rocky Mountain West in paintings and photographs.

Individuals as diverse as Edward Sheriff Curtis, Maynard Dixon and Ansel Adams are profiled. A small cadre of women artists is present, including English immigrant photographer Evelyn Cameron, and painter Fra Dana, a student of Mary Cassatt who was schooled in Paris.

In the early 1900s an influx of eastern and foreign artists arrived, invited by railroad companies to paint the national parks for publicity purposes. Winold F. Reiss was one of these painters, and he became quite famous for his detailed portraits of members of the Blackfeet Nation.

The book, subtitled Painting and Photographing the Northern Rocky Mountain West, contains 140 color photographs and black-and-white illustrations to peruse. From John James Audubon’s anatomically correct creatures to Emily Carr’s bold abstract paintings, the images collectively illustrate the richness and “thematic historical imagery of the region.”

Flores is A.B. Hammond Professor of History at the University of Montana, Missoula. He is the author of numerous books, including The Natural West: Environmental History in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. His latest effort was published by the University of Oklahoma Press and sells for $45 hardcover.

– Judy Shafter